GLYTUNES is an Innovative Training Network (ITN) funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme. GLYTUNES represents a novel, pioneering platform for understanding and exploiting the Siglecs-glycans cross-talk by harnessing the synergy of combining chemical to biological, biophysical, immunological research strategies and finally translating this knowledge into novel diagnostics and therapeutics. The GLYTUNES training network involves leading scientists from academia and industry and offers doctoral research projects (PhD projects) for 14 early stage researchers (ESRs). The research topics range from fundamental to translational science and aim at i) unravelling the mechanisms governing sialo-glycans recognition by the immune surface receptors Siglecs, and ii) enabling the rational design and development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic strategies against immune and infectious diseases. Experts in chemical and structural biology, drug design and computational chemistry, synthetic and medicinal chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, immunology and molecular and medical microbiology will provide the ESRs with a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary training. Successful applicants will receive training in carbohydrate chemistry, glycoimmunology, tumor immunology, microbiology, drug design and development, project management, scientific communication, funding programmes and grant writings, entrepreneurship, ethics and intellectual property. GLYTUNES will expose ESRs to a unique combination of “hands-on” research training, non-academic placements, courses, and workshops on scientific and complementary skills necessary for their future thriving careers in academia, clinical research or industry, and to become the new leaders in the expanding research area of glycoscience.
Participating in GLYTUNES offers early stage researchers many unique opportunities, including:
Eligible candidates must:
INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS DESCRIPTION (find full details on
Hosting Institution: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Italy)
Supervisor: Alba Silipo
Email address for the applications: Glycomics and glycosciences; microbial glycans; structural and chemical biology
Project-specific selection criteria: good skills/experience in structural glycoscience, NMR, carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry; good knowledge of techniques for glycans structural biology, as isolation, purification methodologies, spectroscopic, biophysical, spectrometric techniques.
ESR2: The role of Siglecs in the association between Fusobacterium nucleatum strains and colon cancer
Hosting Institution: Quadram Institute Bioscience (UK)
Supervisor: Nathalie Juge
Email address for the applications: Glycobiology; microbiology; cell biology; immunology
Project-specific selection criteria: expertise in microbiology including anaerobic bacteria, knowledge on host immune response, expertise in cell biology and bioimaging, expertise in protein purification and protein-carbohydrate interactions.
ESR3: Deciphering the structural details of the recognition mode of cancer-associated glycoproteins by Siglec receptors implicated in immune suppression in cancer
Hosting Institution: Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (Spain)
Supervisor: June Ereño-Orbea
Email address for the applications: : Glycobiology, structural biology, biophysics
Project-specific selection criteria: Experience in recombinant protein expression and purification. Good knowledge of techniques in structural biology X-ray crystallography, NMR) and biophysical techniques ITC and BLI).
ESR4: Studying the immunological pathways of the Sialic acid-Siglec axis including the Siglec/TLR cross-talk
Hosting Institution: VU University Medical Center (The Netherlands)
Supervisor: Yvette van Kooyk/Fabrizio Chiodo
Email address for the applications: : Immunology, chemical biology
Project-specific selection criteria: good skills in immunology, culturing, T cell responses, flowcytometry, microscopy, affinity with glycomics and glycosciences, interest in working in the field of cellular biology and chemistry.
ESR5: Biophysical characterization of Siglecs and Siglec- sialoglycans complexes
Hosting Institution: University of Florence - Magnetic Resonance Center (Italy)
Supervisor: Marco Fragai
Email address for the applications: : NMR spectroscopy and structural biology
Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates must have a master degree in any of the relevant disciplines: structural biology, chemistry, medicinal chemistry, physics and bio-physics. Good skill/experience in NMR spectroscopy will be considered an asset.
ESR6: High resolution structural analysis of Siglec oligomers by cryo-EM
Hosting Institution: Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique (France)
Supervisor: Irina Gutsche
Email address for the applications: : Structural biology, high resolution cryo-electron microscopy
Project-specific selection criteria: experience in recombinant protein expression, purification and biochemical characterization techniques. Previous experience in electron microscopy would be an asset. No computational experience is required but interest in computing and image analysis is essential.
ESR7: Development and optimization of novel active glycomimetics
Hosting Institution: Radboud University (The Netherlands)
Supervisor: Thomas Boltje
Email address for the applications: : Organic (carbohydrate) chemistry, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, cell biology.
Project-specific selection criteria: Good knowledge/skills/experience in: organic (carbohydrate) chemistry, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, basic cell biology, in silico molecular docking.
ESR8: NMR methods for the characterisation of protein-ligand interactions using 19F-compounds
Hosting Institution: ATLAS Molecular Pharma (Spain)
Supervisor: Oscar Millet
Email address for the applications: : High resolution NMR spectroscopy; drug discovery; protein-ligand interaction; molecular dynamics simulations; biophysics; pharmacology, pharmacological chaperones, protein isotope labeling.
Project-specific selection criteria: good skills/experience in NMR spectroscopy of structural biology in general; biophysics and enzymology; protein expression and purification; computational skills applied to bioinformatics.
ESR9: Chemoenzymatic synthesis of novel ligands for the detection or inhibition of Siglecs
Hosting Institution: ICENI Diagnostics (UK)
Supervisor: Rob Field
Email address for the applications: : Organic chemistry, carbohydrate chemistry, protein chemistry, molecular diagnostics, assay development, lateral flow assay
Project-specific selection criteria: Experience in organic chemistry, ability to design and perform multistep synthesis process, hands-on experience of common purification and analytical techniques (flash chromatography, NMR, ESI-MS), experience in carbohydrate chemistry, enzymatic process or assay development would be a distinct advantage.
ESR10: Synthesis of Advanced sialylated glycans libraries and their variant
Hosting Institution: GlycoUniverse (Germany)
Supervisor: Kim Le Mai Hoang
Email address for the applications: : Glycomics and glycosciences; synthetic and analytical carbohydrate chemistry; enzymatic synthesis; automated solid phase synthesis
Project-specific selection criteria: good skills/experience in synthetic organic and preferably carbohydrate chemistry, purification and analysis techniques; some experience with enzymatic organic chemistry as well as solid-phase synthesis and automation is preferable.
ESR11: Expression and biophysical characterization of Siglec proteins
Hosting Institution: Giotto Biotech (Italy)
Supervisor: Tommaso Martelli
Email address for the applications: : Molecular biology, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, strucutral biology
Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates must have a master degree in any of the relevant disciplines: molecular biology, biology, biochemistry, structural biology, chemistry and medicinal chemistry. Good skill/experience in protein expression from prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems and protein purification and characterization will be considered an asset.
ESR12: Physico-chemical analysis of Siglecs-Glycan complexes
Hosting Institution: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Italy)
Supervisor: Alba Silipo
Email address for the applications: : Glycomics and glycosciences; structural glycoscience (NMR spectroscopy, MD); molecular interactions; biophysics
Project-specific selection criteria: good skills/experience in glycans structural and conformational analysis; structural biology (NMR); glycomics, biophysical and computational approaches for the characterization of 3D complexes and protein-ligand interaction.
ESR13: Looking at different sialylation in cancer tissues using Siglecs (and tissues sialic acids) as biomarkers
Hosting Institution: VU University Medical Center (The Netherlands)
Supervisor: Yvette van Kooyk/Fabrizio Chiodo
Email address for the applications: : Cancer immunology, glycosciences
Project-specific selection criteria: Cancer biology and immunology, mouse model systems, immunotherapy, immunohistochemistry, flowcytometry, cell culturing, molecular biology.
ESR14: Sialic acid biosynthesis inhibitors to target the sialic acid – Siglec axis
Hosting Institution: Radboud University (The Netherlands)
Supervisor: Thomas Boltje
Email address for the applications: : Organic (carbohydrate) chemistry, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, cell biology.
Project-specific selection criteria: Good knowledge/skills/experience in: organic (carbohydrate) chemistry, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, basic cell biology, in silico molecular docking.
Offer Requirements
Skills/Qualifications
Project-specific background criteria are detailed for each individual project
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